La Truite Nano

Preamble

"L'hostellerie Claire Fontaine a Saint-Nabord.

For many years Paul Moitry owned a famous Russian restaurant in Paris, called the Auberge d'Armaille, which is now the Maisonette Russe de Paris.

He was a native of the Vosges, and now he has returned to the area, living at Saint-Nabord on the banks of the Moselle, near Remirement, where his restaurant is surrounded by a landscape as romantic as a fugitive painting by Claude Loarraine, with all his conventions of mountains, forests, rivers and waterfalls. The Moitrys have an elegant country hotel with a spectacular view from the dining-room. Every bedroom is furnished in a famous period of French decor in the style of Marie Antoinette, Madame de Pompadour, or the First Empire. There are two types of cuisine. The first is a reminder of the heyday of Russian cooking in Paris when the White Russians opened their fashionable bistros in the twenties, and there are specialities like borscht (beetroot soup), shashlik, boeuf Stronganoff, caviar and smoked salmon. The second type of cooking is based wholly on local traditions and includes crayfish, trout, onion tarts, snails, frogs from the river valley, tripe, a duck cooked with olives. As a tribute to Madame Moitry, her husband produced truite Nano. Incidentally, Paul Moitry is an expert conjurer, and after dinner he sometimes gives an impromptu performance for guests."

Ingredients
4 Trout each weighing about 9 oz
1 tablespoon chopped Sorrel
4 oz Spinach finely chopped
1 teaspoon fresh Mint chopped
2 tablespoons chopped Chives Tarragon and Chervil mixed
Salt
Freshly ground Pepper
2 tablespoons chopped Shallots
1 cup dry White Wine
For the Sauce
1 tablespoon chopped Parsley
1 teaspoon each chopped Chervil Tarragon and Chives
Pinch Mint
4 tablespoons Sweet Butter
2 tablespoons finely chopped Shallots
Salt And Pepper
1 teaspoon Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Heavy Cream
1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard

Method
Have the trout boned, or bone them yourself. Mix together the sorrel, spinach, mint, chives, tarragon, chervil and season with salt and pepper. Stuff the fish with this mixture. Butter an ovenproof dish large enough to hold the trout comfortably, arrange the trout on the dish, sprinkle with the shallots and pour on the wine. Cook for 15 minutes in a 300 degree oven. For the sauce, cook the herbs with the butter, shallots, salt, pepper and lemon juice in a small, heavy saucepan. When it has cooked down, add the cream and the mustard and stir for a few minutes over low heat. Pour the sauce over the trout and serve very hot.